France rejects backdoor encryption

Following the reintroduction and reassessment of France’s Digital Republic bill, alongside the terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015, the French government has debated and rejected a backdoor encryption proposal.

France’s Deputy Minister for Digital Affairs Axelle Lemaire, spoke out against the suggested bill, which would have seen government agencies able to access personal user data through built-in ‘backdoors.’

Vulnerability by design

Calling the measure “inappropriate”, Lemaire said: “What you propose is vulnerability by design.”

Lemaire decried the bill over the loss of protected privacy, arguing that without privacy protection, personal data would be a thing of the past, leaving users to abandon these products.

Lemaire discredited the bill due to the damage it would cause to protected privacy. The minister said that without privacy protection, users would ultimately forsake these products, since the integrity of their private data could not be ensured.

She went as far to say that the move could hurt the technology sector as a whole.

French police requested Wi-Fi, Tor block

Late last year, French police forces pressured the government to block access to free public Wi-Fi and Tor during France’s state of emergency, in an effort to block terrorists activity.

Notwithstanding reports first published by Le Monde that purported the government planned to move forward with the block, Prime Minister Manuel Valls quickly refuted the rumours.

“Internet is a freedom, is an extraordinary means of communication between people, it is a benefit to the economy,” said the Prime Minister at the time. “It is also a means for terrorists to communicate and spread their totalitarian ideology. The police must take in all of these aspects to improve their fight against terrorism, but the measures we take must be effective.”

 

Edited from sources by Cecilia Rehn.

Sources: Fortune Tech Times The Verge

More
articles